Pete the Elf!

We jumped on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon this year during Christmas and Katie loved it. He arrived a little too early - Black Friday to be exact - so we had to get really creative closer to Christmas to find new spots for him everyday. Pete did a few relatively funny things like ride on Bullseye or make a pallet on the dining room table with napkins, but most of the time he was just hanging out in a different, hard to reach spot.

 

She woke up every morning wanting to see where Pete was hiding. If it ever took longer than 30 seconds to find him, the tears would start pretty quickly as she was worried he'd gotten lost on his way back from the North Pole. She started to get really attached to him and we worried what it would be like when Pete had to get picked up by Santa and wouldn't return for a year. So we devised a plan to let her hold him on Christmas Eve since in our eyes, he didn't need his magic anymore. Pete wrote her a poem and was hanging on her door knob on Christmas Eve morning.

She was thrilled she got to hold him and carried him around everywhere that day. That night, she boxed him back up and put him under the tree exactly like his letter told her. She said bye to him and then ran upstairs for bed. As we put her to bed, she politely asked us to ask Santa to let Pete stay with her instead of going back with him. It broke my heart. Then, on Christmas morning, she walked all around the Christmas tree searching for his box smiling the whole time saying "I think he's just hiding." We quickly diverted her attention to other things to get her mind off of her missing elf. She didn't mention him again for a few days but then she started wanting to know when Christmas was going to be here so Pete could come back. I'm sure I'm scarring her for life with this shenanigan, but it was fun for the time he was here!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning arrived and while it was still just the three of us, we let Katie head for her stocking. She had been touching her stocking almost daily and was surprised to finally feel that there were presents inside!

A few little squinkie toys (if you don't know what these are, consider yourself lucky) and that bought us some more time while we waited on Sue Sue and Dandaddy to come join us.

I made a french toast casserole that was one of Paula Deen's best reviewed recipes ever. It was pretty easy and it was good, but not great. It all got eaten, so that's probably a good review in and of itself.

After a relaxing morning with my mom and dad, we headed to Grandma Jones' house to meet up with all the cousins and aunts and uncles. 9 adults and 6 kids seems like a manageable ratio, but it was pretty chaotic when you throw all the presents in the mix. We had a great time hanging out together and enjoying Christmas dinner. By far the best moment was when we got four of the little ones to watch The Grinch. We grabbed cameras and snapped quickly thinking the moment would soon pass, but they must've all been pretty exhausted because they laid there for a while and the adults got to visit a little more.

As usual, it was a wonderful Christmas spent with our wonderful families. This year seemed so special as we worked on teaching Katie the true meaning of Christmas and she seemed to understand. She's at such a precious age where she just soaks everything in and it's hard to know when she really gets something. But it was so cool to hear her sing Happy Birthday Jesus and understand why we were celebrating. Now we're off to ring in the new year!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a relatively low key Saturday for us. We got to spend lots of time some last minute shopping, wrapping, and baking. Before we headed to church service with family, we had to put out the reindeer food Katie had made at school. (It was basically oatmeal and glitter - Breakfast of Champions, right?) 

After just completely dumping it all in one spot, she figured she might need to spread it out some since there would be many reindeer trying to eat from the same spot and that might not work.

Then she scooped up little handfuls and placed them in various spots of the front yard so the reindeer would all have their individual feeding station.

After the Christmas Eve service, we came back to our house with my parents and had some chili together. We showed Katie a special video from Santa and let her open one gift from us. She got a pink soccer ball that Doug picked out for her and went to town showing us her Bend it Like Beckham skills.

This is a throw in since apparently the ball went out of bounds in the hallway.

Getting ready to receive the pass I just made to her...

Pass received...But she used her hands. She might make a pretty good goalie!

After all of this excitement, it was a little difficult getting her to go to bed. But one quick threat of Santa not being able to come until she was asleep and she was putting on her pajamas pretty fast! We sent her to bed with hopes of visions of sugar plums dancing and got busy getting the rest of things ready for Christmas morning.

Lights Before Christmas

We headed over to the zoo for the Lights Before Christmas to get a look at some of the nocturnal animals and see all the lights and listen to the festive music. But no trip to the zoo is ever complete without our obligatory ride on the carousel.

It was actually really cold that night so we had to all get bundled up to endure it! I loaded her down with hat, coat, gloves, hooded sweatshirt, and fleece pants. Hat and gloves were gone within the first five minutes. She's not a fan.

One last pose with the penguin before we head out...This lighted penguin had to suffice since the actual penguin exhibit was closed for the evening. She handled her disappointment with all the poise and grace normally attributed to 3 year olds...NONE.

It was a fun evening with just the three of us which rarely happens. We usually thrive off of extended family-family adventures of friend-filled time so it was nice to be just us and enjoy our time together!

Not So Camera Shy

We set up a little tree in Katie's playroom this year and let her decorate it with her own flair. She picked out all different types of ornaments from our collection and I tried to tell her where each one came from. She did a good job remembering lots of them! She looked pretty angelic while decorating her tree, so I grabbed the camera to take a few pictures.

And then she got sassy. She wanted to hide behind the tree and just out and scare me. She almost knocked the tree over twice.

This is apparently her scary face...The one that wanted to jump out from behind the tree. Not scary, but pretty darn laughable!

She had enough of the tree and just wanted some pictures of herself playing in her room. I call this her "word to your mother" look.

This is the "there's something I want to ask you but I know you're going to say 'no'" face.

This is her response any time I ask her to clean up one of the many messes she's made.

Ok mom - just take a picture of me and my bear. (Actually, it's Uncle Gabe's bear from when he was a kid.)